08.27.12
Angela Storey
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
angela.d.storey@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-091
NASA'S MARSHALL CENTER HONORS POMPANO BEACH, FLA., NATIVE TANNEN VANZWIETEN WITH FEDERAL WOMEN'S 2011 OUTSTANDING AWARD
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Tannen VanZwieten, a native of Pompano Beach,
Fla., has received a Federal Women's Program 2011 Outstanding
Achievement Award from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville in commemoration of Women's Equality Day for outstanding
professional achievement in supporting NASA's mission with enthusiasm
in a diverse and challenging environment.
VanZwieten is the aerospace engineer lead for the Controls Working
Group in the Marshall Center's Engineering Directorate. Appointed to
the position in 2011, her team is responsible for the autopilot
design analysis and integration for the Space Launch System vehicles.
VanZwieten's role includes managing the day-to-day technical
direction of an engineering staff of approximately 15 engineers. She
also is the civil service flight control design lead for SLS and has
been jointly responsible for the development of the launch vehicle's
adaptive augmenting control algorithm.
The Federal Women's Program 2011 Outstanding Achievement Awards
recognize civil service employees in four categories -- professional,
administrative, supervisory and clerical -- for exceptional service
to the Marshall Center and the U.S. space program. Women's Equality
Day is commemorated each year on Aug. 26 by proclamation of the
president of the United States to honor women gaining the right to
vote.
VanZwieten and three other honorees received their awards Aug. 16
during Marshall's Annual Honor Awards Ceremony where the center
honored those who made significant achievements to NASA's mission at
an agency level.
VanZwieten began her NASA career in 2008 as an aerospace engineer. In
that role, she was the task lead for development of a robust
augmenting control algorithm for launch vehicles, and supported the
Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology SATellite, known as FASTSAT.
She completed an eight-month detail at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
in early 2011, supporting the Space Shuttle Program’s Marshall
Resident Management Office. She developed a document describing the
external tank processing from arrival to launch, written as a
narrative with diagrams and photos to visually demonstrate key
elements of each procedure.
Prior to joining NASA, from 2001 to 2008 VanZwieten held
research/teaching assistant positions at the University of Wyoming in
Laramie, University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida Atlantic
University in Dania Beach, the Universite’ de Technologie de Troyes
in France and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Sagamihara.
Her responsibilities included performing research in the area of
dynamic modeling, simulation and control, and assisting with
undergraduate classes such as vibration analysis and senior design
projects on microsatellites and autonomous underwater vehicles.
She was a mechanical engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory in
Albuquerque, N.M., during the summer months from 2004 to 2006 as part
of the Space Scholars Program. Her responsibilities included power
system model development and simulation, data-based control in the
presence of uncertainties and pursuit evasion games.
VanZwieten earned bachelor’s and master's degrees in ocean engineering
from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in 2002 and 2003,
respectively. She also received a master's degree in aerospace
engineering from the University of Central Florida in 2005, and a
doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming in
2008.
During her NASA career, VanZwieten was honored for her significant
contributions in the advancement of the SLS flight control system
design, and for outstanding initiative and engineering in support of
the FASTSAT project Critical Design Review. She also is the recipient
of Outstanding and Accomplished Performance Awards, presented each
evaluation period.
VanZwieten resides in Huntsville.
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